N is for Not Your Grandfather's Paradox
by Jedi Buttercup
Summary: "Hey, me. No, you're not imagining things. This really is your handwriting, and the paper it's written on really is older than you are. Assuming I got the timing right- you should be reading this in August, 2008."


**Title:** N is for Not Your Grandfather's Paradox

 **Author:** Jedi Buttercup

 **Rating:** T

 **Disclaimer:** The words are mine; the world is not

 **Summary:** _"Hey, me. No, you're not imagining things. This really is your handwriting, and the paper it's written on really is older than you are. Assuming I got the timing right- you should be reading this in August, 2008."_ 900 words.

 **Spoilers:** Stargate: Continuum (2008)

 **Notes:** For SG-1 epistolary alphabet soup. Because Continuum left some pretty epic dangling threads. Originally posted to LJ on February 29, 2016.

* * *

Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell

 **[written on the outside of an envelope, yellowed with age. inside, handwritten text covers several folded pages, authentically stiff and inscribed in faded ink:]**

Hey, me. No, you're not imagining things. This really is your handwriting, and the paper it's written on really is older than you are. Assuming I got the timing right- you should be reading this in August, 2008.

No, I didn't get a letter like this. This isn't that kind of paradox. Too bad, 'cause that would make this a whole lot easier. So how can I prove it to you? How about, in the words of someone we both know who's been around this block before:

"My name is Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. I'm part of a team called SG-1, and I traveled back in time 79 years."

I know, I know, that's a drop in the bucket compared to five thousand... and unfortunately, there's no ZPM enclosed this time. I kind of wish there was, 'cause we always seem to be short of those things. But I'm just gonna assume you get the reference, and that it serves as my bonafides, because if I've somehow managed to change the timeline enough that you didn't end up in Colorado Springs, the rest of this letter isn't going to make much sense to you.

If that's the case- sorry to bother you. Burn this letter, and raise a glass to Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran, and Teal'c sometime.

...Unless you're curious. And you're me, so I'm pretty sure you'll wonder what you're missing as much as I would. Look up a dig at a tomb near Giza; yes, the archaeological kind. There should have been a team from the University of Chicago over there back in '05. If there wasn't an SGC to take charge of what they found there, the scientists probably thought they were the victims of some weird prank, so you should be able to figure out which one I mean. There'll be a dusty, dead old video camera in a box somewhere in their archives, along with a glowy thing that looks a little like a power-up module from a videogame. (Which is not a bad analogy, now that I think about it.) That should give you enough to start with.

Anyway, if all that did make sense to you, there's a few things you should know.

First of all, that thing Ba'al was talking about when he said "You've all made a terrible mistake?"

He wasn't lying. He really wasn't the last of them; the original really did give himself the ability to take out his tracking device. He was still out there.

And that brings me to the second thing. Ba'al had a failsafe.

Which was, you guessed it, a time travel device. He used it to go back to Earth in 1939 and completely rewrite galactic history. You know Ba'al; so whatever you're imaging that means, you're not far off. Carter, Jackson and I happened to be mid-wormhole when it happened, and we ended up on the alternate Earth his actions created- in 2008. To make a long story short, things went wrong for Ba'al again about a year after we arrived, through no fault of ours; his new First Prime tried to activate the failsafe again; and I ended up stranded alone on Earth in 1929.

Well- not exactly alone. That picture in your locker? Yeah, I met him. Turns out the Achilles was the ship transporting the 'gate across the ocean to keep it away from the Nazis. Small world, huh?

I've been rewriting this letter every five years or so, but as of this writing, you haven't been born yet. I've been living as low-impact a life as possible, trying to avoid screwing things up again, except one trip in 1939 to where I knew Ba'al was going to show up. So you don't have to worry about Mr. Wannabe Supreme System Lord; between me and Granddad's crew, we settled his hash proper.

What you do need to worry about, the reason I wrote this letter in the first place, is the failsafe. I don't know how he came up with it, or why he waited 'til the last possible moment to use it, but odds are the thing's still out there just as Ba'al left it. And I don't think it'll thrill you any more than it does me to imagine someone else stumbling across it when SG-1 might not be in a position to fix things.

I've written the symbols for the location below. It'll look like a three-pronged platform, one for the gate, one for a set of rings, and one for the controls, around a central tower that powers the machine. It's got something to do with solar flares- Carter'll be able to figure it out. She did before.

Take along a planet buster, set the timer, and get the hell out- and don't tell anyone but the general before you go. No one needs that kind of power. It's bad enough that we kept the Ark.

(No, not that Ark, if you're still confused. The other one. Though now that I think on it, that's not a bad analogy, either. And now that I've creeped myself out...)

 **[above the signature, six symbols resemble stylized constellations]**

Cameron **[illegible scribble]**  
(aka, you. I'm counting on you, kid.)


End file.
